Mister Spiff I
Release type: Unknown
Release date: ~1994
Levels: 17
Author: Adam Tyner
Related games: Mister Spiff II, Mister Spiff III: Freeze! Mother! Freeze!, Mister Spiff IV, CGA Hell, FireAxe, Star Avenger
Long-running Game-Maker users tend to have their signature series. Alan Caudel has Dummy Duck; PPP Team has Badman; Adam Tyner has Mister Spiff.
Spiff was Adam Tyner's first effort with Game-Maker -- and as one tends to, he approached it as if this was his one shot at a game. It wasn't just a platformer; it was a platformer and an adventure game and a scrolling shooter and a free-roaming space shooter. And you get a choice of ship! And there are in-engine cutscenes! And, possibly inspired by its namesake Commander Keen, a map screen to tie it all together.
And yet, for all of the ground Tyner covers here, Mister Spiff is a curiously short game. If even the five levels are too much for you, it's also full of short cuts and unexpected warp zones to zap you around at will. For all its energy and aspiration, Mister Spiff isn't really in a hurry to go places. "Chill out," it says. "Look around the place. Maybe you'll find something cool?"
To that end, the game is fairly well crammed with Easter eggs -- many of them inexplicable; some merely unexpected. If, the moment that you start the game, you backpedal on the map screen, the game hands over to what may be the entirety of Alan Caudel's FireAxe. There are references to Frisbounce and pieces lifted whole cloth out of Star Avenger. How many of these oddities are original and how many come with Tyner's later visual revamp of Spiff, is unclear.
What is clear is that Tyner had found his touchstone; over the years he would produce at least three more main-range Spiff games as well as an experimental spin-off (CGA Hell) and... one game that really seems like it's meant to be a Mister Spiff game but for some reason it's not. Later games would strip out the eccentricities and focus on pure platformer action -- pure to the point of total abstraction, in time. This first one, though? It's enjoying the giddiness of just being allowed to exist. And it's going to make the most of its time.
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Story[edit]
Radio Transmission U.S.S. Cornbird November 17, 3025
5:23 A.M.
- "...approaching third quadrant...only three light years until destination, pleasure planet Huskaphid."
6:41 A.M.
- "...hostile air craft approaching! Make, design unknown."
7:19 A.M.
- "...the aliens are coming on board and taking over..."
7:22 A.M.
- "...NOOOOO!!!!!"
Commander Tanksfer Damemry's office November 17, 3025 7:43 A.M.
- "Are there any ships still out there? One? Whose is it?"
(Drumroll please!)
MISTER SPIFF!
Mister Spiff, AKA Lawrence Arabia Spiff, is a bumbling playboy just goes wherever he wants and usually finds trouble. This time, Mister Spiff is on the planet Nilbog (Inside Joke -- watch Troll II. "They're eating my mom!"). ANYway, on the planet Nilbog, Mister Spiff must try to find a mechanic good enough to fix his DSHDS-0589- LDIJGDIRLGHREOIHGROI-340875049387543573420 model spaceship. The only mechanic there is conveniently on the other side of the planet, so yas gotsta fight if yas wants to get there (read that with a Popeye voice). Have fun!
Instructions[edit]
Controlling Mister Spiff (Map):
Use the arrow keys to move Mister Spiff on the light yellow path. Just walk to a destination to play.
Controlling Mister Spiff (Side view):
Use the numeric keypad for best results.
- Left = Walk left
- Right = Walk right
- Home = Jump left
- Up = Jump up
- PgUp = Jump right
- End = Roll left
- Down = Roll down
- PgDn = Roll right
- P = Pick up the gun
- Enter = Fire in the last direction pressed
To fire, you must have the rifle in the ship that is the first thing past the 'Easy' sign. Use 'P' to pick it up.
Controlling Mister Spiff (On Runway):
Use the arrow keys to move. Enter fires, unless you are the blue alien ship. The blue alien ship can't fire in this level, but can turn invisible by pressing Enter.
Controlling Mister Spiff (Rocket):
Use the arrow keys to move. Use Enter to fire. The grey ship fires a spray of weapon fire. The blue ship fires one blast at a time.
Credits[edit]
MISTER SPIFF I V. 2.0
by Adam Tyner and Alan Caudel
Alan Caudel was a great help. Although I (Adam Tyner) did most of the programming, without Alan I wouldn't have known how to make a game like this. Alan also gave me the idea for the first animation in our last release, Star Avenger. He also programmed the cool FireAxe demo you can play by touching your broken ship.
Mister Spiff was the first game of its kind I had ever programmed. This version you are playing is vastly different from 1.0 graphically. Although the graphics in 1.0 were, well, extremely inferior to this version, I liked the gameplay and decided to just redo some graphics. I hope you've enjoyed the face-lift I've given it.
(Oh, all you Questor players who want Q1 to get a face-lift, too -- sorry, I've tryed it, but I can't draw anything un-cartoony too well. Alan's better than I am, so maybe he'll make one soon. Speaking of Alan and RPGs, his FireAxe game is trudging along, but still looks great. I think it'll be our best selling game ever when he finishes it (for reference, he sent me the character select and two levels, one of which is included with this, back in July 1993).
Anyway, thanks for caring. Enjoy the game!
-Adam Tyner
- Aspiring programmer currently programming in his bedroom
Availability[edit]
This game is not known to have been distributed in any form, prior to its addition to the Archive.
Archive History[edit]
On October 20, 2010, Caudel posted a comment to a YouTube video of Peach the Lobster, under the name dummyduckrulz; following up the conversation, on June 29, 2011 he provided a link to a collection of games recently uncovered by Adam Tyner. This initial archive included:
Links[edit]
Downloads[edit]
- Mister Spiff I (136 kB)
